Letters on the proposed OKC Thunder arena, Oklahomans in poverty, Ryan Walters, gun mayhem

Elected leaders need to work to raise up Oklahomans living in poverty

In response to "Which Oklahomans made the cut in Forbes 400?" that published Oct. 4 in The Oklahoman, why are we focusing on the wealthiest Americans in our state when the average Oklahoman is living in poverty? Most recent U.S. Census data places the poverty rate for Oklahoma at 15.7%, which was higher than the national average of 11.5%. We are in the top 10 of highest poverty rates in the country.

We should be lifting up our fellow Oklahomans, especially ones in need. Our elected leaders can do this by giving their support to legislation that has proven, viable solutions to poverty. We urge Reps. Tom Cole and Kevin Hern to get Oklahoma out of this particular top 10 list by supporting the expanded Child Tax Credit and a Renter’s Tax Credit.

— Jacoby Gonzales and Tiffany Tagbo, Tulsa

Why don't we raise taxes for more teacher pay, not a sports arena?

So Oklahoma City wants a 1-cent raise in sales tax to fund a new $900 million stadium for the Thunder while teachers all throughout the state, and I'm sure OKC, are quitting due to lack of pay.

In Texas, a school district wants to build a new 8,000-seat football stadium for a high school for $94 million. I wonder how many teachers could get paid with that money and continue teaching?

Maybe instead of raising taxes for a new arena, you should raise taxes for more teacher pay and not sports facilities?

— Tim Gawry, Mustang

Don't take a step back! Invest OKC

From 1985 through 1991, I worked in downtown OKC at the city attorney's office. It was during this period of time that Mayor Ron Norick came up with the idea of an entertainment district in the area now known as Bricktown. Prior to that time, OKC was NOT a destination. In fact, while serving as the advising attorney for the Convention and Visitors Commission, I was involved in many discussions with the Chamber of Commerce about how to attract visitors and tourists to OKC. We were falling further and further behind as a city, with a downtown that could best be described as a ghost town.

That all changed with MAPS 1 and the development of Bricktown and the Ford Center. Soon, the Hornets arrived in OKC, and suddenly downtown began to thrive. It was the forward thinking of Mayor Norick, the OKC Council and the residents of OKC that turned the fortunes of the city around.

DON'T take a step back! While the new arena will be expensive, it is an investment in the continued growth of OKC. Keep the Thunder as long as you can by voting to build the new arena.

— Mike Fisher, Skiatook

Like Don Quixote, Ryan Walters can turn around persona, win teachers

One day as I walked into Building 3001 where I worked at Tinker Air Force Base, I noticed the colorful new rubber mats on the floor. Several employees were discussing how attractive they were and how proud they made them feel, when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned to see a man with a scowl on his face as he began complaining about having our Logistics Center emblem where everyone could walk on it!

As I thought back on that incident, my mind drifted to our Oklahoma education secretary who came into office like a bulldozer, demanding changes that would more nearly fit his narrow ideas of how a school system should be run — including what books should be in school libraries and calling the Oklahoma State Department of Education a terrorist organization!

I thought of the story of the “Man of La Mancha,” Don Quixote, who traveled the countryside fighting windmills, thinking they were enemy soldiers. In the end, Quixote had a good heart and treated the lowly kitchen maid as a queen.

Mr. Walters, if you reconsider your actions, you can still win the hearts of Oklahoma’s teachers and receive a warm welcome instead of causing teachers and staff to run and hide!

— Ed Koonce, Mustang

Gun-soaked culture is not American tradition dating back to wild West

The fact that firearm mayhem in Oklahoma society has to reach truly bizarre proportions to "stir debate" is, frankly, tragic. The number of deaths in children and adolescents ages 5-14 in the World Health Organization European zone in 2016 due to interpersonal violence was 198. The child and teen firearm mortality rate in the U.S. in 2019 was 6.0. The next highest rate in any developed country was literally one-tenth as high, at 0.6 (Canada).

The gun-soaked culture that has blossomed in America over the last century is not an American tradition dating to colonial times or even the time of the "Wild West." It has been a massively successful and thoroughly cynical project of gun manufacturers, using the NRA as their manipulative megaphone, based upon the finely honed, psychologically effective pretexts of "freedom," Second Amendment rights, fear and machismo. For that to change, the average citizen must become educated about how they have been manipulated, acknowledge it, and call for change. "Debate" has to be focused on solutions (limitation of sales of weapons designed for war, gun security, red flag laws, etc.), not causes. Those we already know.

— Gary M Stewart, Laguna Beach, California

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Letters on the proposed OKC arena, Oklahomans in poverty, Ryan Walters